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You can now send directions and notes to your phone via Google search

Google’s taking small steps to more intimately connect your Android phone and desktop computer. The search company has rolled out a new ...

Google’s taking small steps to more intimately connect your Android phone and desktop computer. The search company has rolled out a new feature that lets you send directions, notes, reminders, and more directly from your browser to your phone.

If your Android device is updated and has the right settings enabled (see this help article for details), you can simply type “send a note to my phone” or “send directions to my phone” directly into the search bar. Doing so will open up a little Google Now-style card that will let you type in your note or specify the directions that you’re looking for. Google will then send the data to your phone as a notification. Other than directions or notes, you can also send reminders, set an alarm, or instantly find the location of your phone directly from the Google search bar on your desktop.

The new feature can be seen as an extension of Google’s already-great syncing between its Chrome desktop browser and its Android operating system. For years, recent searches and tabs have been seamlessly synced between the two, and Google Maps searches are also shared across both platforms. Before that, Google used a browser extension called Chrome to Phone to handle sharing data from your computer to your phone. The new system, built directly into the Google search bar, is far simpler, and can be seen as a response to Handoff, a highly-publicized feature in iOS 8 that makes it easier to pick up where you left off when switching between your phone and computer.